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Escondido's bright idea: "Glow-in-the-Park"

Last Saturday’s “Glow-in-the-Park” transformed a space that can be a little dicey, especially at night, into a rollicking party of kids, music and luminous art. The brainchild of Wendy Wilson, executive director of the Escondido Arts Partnership, and Wendy Barker, executive director of the Escondido History Center, “Glow-in-the-Park” was based on a similar summertime event in Santa Monica.

Supported by grants from the San Diego Foundation’s Arts and Culture Working Group and the Matt McLaughlin Endowment Fund, along with the Escondido Charitable Foundation, proposals were selected for their creativity, interactivity, structural integrity, sustainability, feasibility, budget and community involvement. The finished pieces included inflatable tents, a solar-powered house, video art, trees and people decorated with fluorescent paint, a shadow puppet theater and a karaoke moon.

Jon-Loren Bazán and Benjamin Nelson paid attention to the sustainability element, which asked artists to consider using temporary or found materials. They reformulated the stage set that they’d designed for the city’s “Recycled Runway Show” into a new piece called “Sacred Space,” pointing out that it qualified as “recycled recycled-art.” It was their first time building an outdoor installation, and they quickly learned that kids view air-filled plastic tubes as big punching bags. Bazan had to step in periodically to rescue his sculpture from too much public interaction.

Grape Day Park is known for shade trees and shady characters. During “Glow,” the characters withdrew to the park’s perimeter, watching the action but not interfering, while the trees created pools of darkness that made some artworks pop and obscured others. Three sculptures by Brian Gibson could have used a little more light to appreciate the detail. His “Camping on the Shores of the Borrego Sea” imagined a peaceful vacation during the Oligocene Epoch more than 23 million years ago, when the ocean was 700 feet higher. He assembled a tiny canvas tent, lit from within, and placed it on a replica of one of the Anza-Borrego mountain peaks. Given the time and care that went into the piece, it was frustrating to be unable to see it clearly.

In contrast, Rebecca Goodman and Christina Bullard’s “Infinite Pulse” gained intensity as the night went on. A 15-foot structure of stainless steel, glass and LED lights controlled by an iPhone, the artwork tapped into the primal urge to cluster together around light and movement. Anna Stump, Natalia Valerdi and Chris Komashko, the members of Mid-Air Trio, also drew a crowd. Their collaboration combines dance, music and painting, all produced on the fly. Composer Komashko spins an experimental soundtrack, dancer Valerdi improvises a choreography, while Stump paints a portrait in response to both. At one point the audience grew so large that Stump felt a little anxious, surrounded by hundreds of people leaning in to watch her work.

Maybe that’s part of the appeal of nighttime events. For a few hours, the public reclaims a space that usually feels threatening — but a little edge still exists. It’s the same psychology behind scary movies or roller coasters, allowing us to gain mastery over our fears. I could hear it in the sharp bark of a parent when a child wandered too far away, or the relief in the voice of coordinator Chrisanne Moats as she said, “I had tears in my eyes because I was so proud of the community. We had upwards of 2000 people, and they were so well-behaved. It was amazing.”

Joey Chavez / Giant Blocks

By 11pm, tired organizers and artists started to pack up, and families steered reluctant children towards home. You could tell they’d had a fun night — staying out late, climbing on blocks, singing off-key, and experiencing the joy of glowing, twinkling, radiant artwork. Hang a star on Escondido for this one.